We experimentally investigate the influence of AlN buffer growth on the nucleation and the polarity of a self-organized assembly of GaN nanowires (NWs) grown on Si. Two complementary growth mechanisms for AlN buffer deposited on Si are demonstrated. Both emphasize the aggregation of Si on the AlN surface and the growth of large cubic crystallites, namely, AlN pedestals. Further growths of GaN NWs assembly reveal that the GaN 2D layer found at the bottom of the NW assembly is the result of the coalescence of Ga-polar pyramids, whereas AlN pedestals are observed as preferential but not exclusive NW nucleation sites. NWs are N-polar or exhibit inversion domains with a Ga-polar core/N-polar shell structure. This suggests that N-polarity is a necessary condition to trigger NW self-organized nucleation due to a different facets energy hierarchy between the Ga- and the N-polar sides.

AlInN/AlN/GaN heterostructures were characterized by atomic force microscopy. V-defects and channels were observed. In phase-contrast mode, these features were found related to inhomogeneities associated with In-segregation (and/or In-diffusion) and Al-rich surface reconstruction. The electrical characterization via conductive atomic force microscopy showed enhanced conductivity regions related to In-rich traces within channels and V-defects.

The crystal structural quality and the strain induced by the substrate strictly impose the magnetic and transport properties of La _0.67 Sr _0.33 MnO ₃ (LSMO) films. In particular, the magnetic anisotropy (MA) of epitaxial LSMO can be finely tuned by varying its thickness and by choosing single crystal substrates with a suitable lattice mismatch with the film. Here, we have deposited LSMO films with thicknesses in the 12–50 nm range by pulsed laser deposition on different single crystal substrates inducing either compressive or tensile in-plane strain on the manganites. The epitaxial quality of films was quantified by ω-scans around a (002) peak with full-width half-maximum values as low as 0.08° for films on the nearly matched NGO (110) substrate to 1.4° films on the high mismatched MgO (001) substrate. As the epitaxial strain in a thin-film increases, a significant reduction in the metal-insulation transition temperature (T _p ) was observed. The magnetic properties of the films probed by Kerr magnetometry show that the symmetry of the room temperature MA varies significantly as a function of both strain and thickness. Specifically, we observed pure uniaxial MA on NGO (110) and pure biaxial MA on STO buffered MgO (001), whereas a spin reorientation from uniaxial in-plane to out-of-plane on LSAT (001) and uniaxial to nearly isotropic in-plane on STO (001) substrate as the film thickness is increased. We provide an efficient tool to tune the MA according to the specific spintronic application targeted.

Making use of Kelvin probe force microscopy, in dark and under ultraviolet illumination, we study the characteristics of p–n junctions formed along the axis of self-organized GaN nanowires (NWs). We map the contact potential difference of the single NW p–n junctions to locate the space charge region and directly measure the depletion width and the junction voltage. Simulations indicate a shrinkage of the built-in potential for NWs with small diameter due to surface band bending, in qualitative agreement with the measurements. The photovoltage of the NW/substrate contact is studied by analyzing the response of NW segments with p- and n-type doping under illumination. Our results show that the shifts of the Fermi levels, and not the changes in surface band bending, are the most important effects under above band-gap illumination. The quantitative electrical information obtained here is important for the use of NW p–n junctions as photovoltaic or rectifying devices at the nanoscale, and is especially relevant since the technique does not require the formation of ohmic contacts to the NW junction.